Trolling for Snickers

WATCH OF THE WEEK

Let us introduce you to what might already be our favorite watch of the summer. “This is 30” is a one-minute video by Andrew Stadelberger in which a group of friends gather in a slow motion wedding photobooth. The video has recently gone viral on Reddit thanks to Stadelberger, who set the video to Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” and stands in the back staring somberly into the camera as his friends laugh and have fun. His stroke of genius has made “This is 30” the perfect visual representation of the existential crisis of leaving your 20s behind. Well, that, and the best wedding memento ever.

MARKETING BUZZ

Snickers keeps on surprising us with how many ways they can play off of their “You're not you when you're hungry” motto. Tapping into how the internet seems to be increasingly fueled by negativity (think political quarrels, internet trolls, and mean YouTube comments), the candy company has come up with a new way to ease the anger. The Snickers Hungerithm monitors emotions online in real time so that the angrier social media users get, the lower the prices of Snickers all across Australia. To take advantage of the online-meets-offline campaign if you’re Down Under, all you have to do is monitor prices on the site, click for a barcode when anger is at an all-time high, and then redeem at a nearby 7-Eleven.

OUR OBSESSION

Oscar Isaac has once again won the hearts of the people of the internet. The new Twitter account, Oscar Dances, takes a 30-second clip of an Ex Machina scene—in which Isaac performs a disco dance routine with a robot—and sets it to different pop music hits. From Lady Gaga and Drake to “Africa” and “Cotton Eye Joe,” the memes are both enjoyable and addictive to watch. Better yet, we’re giving the account major props for bringing Ex Machina more attention long after the initial buzz around the movie has died down. Check out this Buzzfeed roundup for more!

IN OUR CARTS

A year after Google announced their plans to create smart clothing, aka Project Jacquard, the first iteration of that initiative has arrived. The Levi’s Commuter x Jacquard is a trucker jacket with a sleeve that allows the wearer to control their Android device without ever touching it via a small patch woven with the technology’s conductive threads. Made with bikers in mind, the commuter jacket performs functions like giving directions, listing nearby places, and controlling music, all through simple swipes and taps of the sleeve. The controller connects to a standard USB port to charge, but luckily it can go a few days without needing it. The jacket will be available for purchase this fall and, according to Levi’s, it won’t be too ridiculously priced.

APP-TASTIC

When twenty-five-year-old Peiying Feng realized that both her Chinese and Canadian sex education were inadequate, she decided to do something about it. For her Master’s degree project she is creating an app that fills in the gaps in sex education by making it fun. The premise of the game is simple, protect your characters from contracting STI’s by using condoms and make sure they get treatment when they do contract them. Feng’s goals are to make the game as informative as possible without it feeling educational and to reach her target audience of young teens before they start having sex. While the app is still not on available to download from the app store yet, you can check out this video for a sneak peak at the game.

PROPS TO

The newly opened and aptly named Second Shot is one of many in a long line of quirky establishments to recently pop up in East London. But, there’s more to the café than initially meets the eye. Founder Julius Ibrahim is looking to combat the homelessness epidemic in this area by training and employing those lacking shelter to give them a chance to turn their situation around. Ibrahim’s aim is not to offer permanent jobs, rather he hopes that his employees will take the skills they learn and use them as a way out of homelessness. Second Shot also has “pay it forward” program, which allows patrons to purchase an additional coffee or bakery item to be donated to a homeless person. Getting your caffeine fix has never felt so good.

This Week We: Are beginning to gather trends for our summer report!

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